


Lantern

by Kaenith



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
Genre: "creepy" is in the eye of the beholder, Four Swords Art-tober 2020, Gift Giving, Illustrated, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:15:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26782759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaenith/pseuds/Kaenith
Summary: Shadow has a gift for Vio....If Vio were anyone else, it might not have gone over so well.
Relationships: Shadow Link/Vio Link
Comments: 34
Kudos: 256





	Lantern

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Day 2 of the [Four Swords Art-tober](https://imaginefourswords.tumblr.com/post/630630218149822464/hi-everybody-just-popping-in-to-share-this). Prompt: Lanterns

Vio’s lantern cast a pool of flickering orange light in the otherwise midnight-dark of the library.

Shadow tried not to wince too much. That couldn’t be safe, right? Must be a fire hazard, a candle flame in the middle of all this flammable paper. Shadow… really didn’t like the idea of “Vio” and “fire” in the same sentence. For reasons he was going to try very hard not to dwell on.

He couldn’t change the past, but maybe he could do something about the future.

“Vio?” he said softly as he approached.

Vio looked up, blinking at Shadow with that slightly muddled expression he got when he was pulled too abruptly from one of his books. Shadow definitely didn’t find it endearing. Nope. Especially not the way the look shifted from confused to fond when Vio realized who it was. Shadow did _not_ have a chest full of butterflies, shut up.

Vio’s brows drew together in curiosity as he saw what Shadow was carrying. “What’s that?” he asked, saving his place with a bookmark and setting his book aside, leaning in for a better look.

“It’s for you,” Shadow said, holding the object out for Vio to take.

It was shaped like a lantern — it _was_ a lantern — but instead of a candle, it contained a thin layer of dirt, a few small stones, a piece of decaying wood, and an unusual plant. (Or fungus? Lichen? Shadow wasn’t clear on the difference.) The plant filled the lantern with a tangled web of thin, branching coils, and the whole thing glowed with yellow-green bioluminescence.

“It’s from the Dark World,” Shadow explained. “I figured it would make a safer light than something with fire.”

Vio lifted his gaze from the lantern to stare instead at Shadow, a calculating look in his eye. Then he reached over to snuff out the flame of his original lantern. The plant seemed to glow brighter in response to the darker environment, bathing them both in eerie green light.

“It shouldn’t be hard to care for,” Shadow said, a bit too quickly, trying to deflect attention from the prickling back-of-the-neck feeling that he’d just been read as easily as one of Vio’s books. “Just sprinkle water on it and give it some meat scraps occasionally.”

“ _Meat scraps_?” Vio repeated, incredulous.

“That’s why it glows. It lures bugs and stuff in with its light, then traps them in its tangles — it’s sticky, maybe don’t touch it — and digests them.”

“Shadow,” Vio said, slowly. “Are you giving me a gift of a flesh-eating fungus?”

“… Ye-es.” Shadow faltered. “Is that weird? I’m suddenly realizing that’s probably weird.”

“Very weird,” Vio agreed, bluntly. The corner of his mouth twitched and his eyes sparkled in the lichen’s glow. He leaned forward and kissed Shadow, briefly, on the cheek. When he pulled back he was fully grinning. “It’s also the nicest, most thoughtful gift anyone has ever given me.”

The butterflies in Shadow’s chest must have been bioluminescent, too. Only explanation for the way he felt like he was glowing from the inside out.


End file.
